Doing That Thing You Do
by mercy-angel-09
Summary: Adrien's got Marinette under his skin. And he wouldn't have it any other way. Follow up to "That Thing You Do." (Established Adrinette, post-reveal, x-posted on AO3.)


**Over on AO3 a reader said that they would love to read more of troll!Marinette. Almost immediately three scenarios popped into my head and I answered, "Sign me the fuck up." So here we are, more troll!Marinette.**

* * *

It starts off, ironically enough, rather innocently.

First it's her shirts are cut a little lower. She puffs her chest out a little, squeezes her assets together, then leans forward to ask Adrien a question about their homework. Of course when Adrien turns around to answer, the first thing he notices is not her face – eyes wide with her question, lips slightly parted – but her cleavage and Adrien's brain nearly short circuits because he cannot, for the life of him, remember if she's ever had cleavage before. He blushes and stammers out the answer and then turns around, trying desperately to ignore the now all too familiar tightness in his jeans.

Then, oh dear God in heaven, then she starts wearing more form fitting jeans. She deliberately walks in front of him with a swing in her step and Adrien does his best to ignore it. Except she does it when they're out on patrol, too, and despite his warnings for her to knock it off, all she does is shrug. It's not her fault if he can't control his body's reaction to her.

He nearly hits the breaking point right before their baccalaureate when she shows up to class in a sundress. Not just any sundress. Oh no, this one had been deliberately designed to invoke Ladybug, with the red and black beetles covering every inch of the fabric. The skirt toes the line of inappropriate and the sweetheart neckline draws his eyes to her cleavage and the spaghetti straps show off her magnificent shoulders and that delectable column of her throat.

It takes every ounce of willpower Adrien has not to slam her against the wall and take her right there. Because God _damn_ does he want her.

Adrien keeps his focus on packing up his book bag when they break for lunch, pointedly ignoring Marinette as she swishes by his desk. He also pointedly ignores Alya and Marinette's giggles at his obvious ignorance. Nino watches the whole exchange with concern, and after the room empties he turns to his friend.

"Alright, bro, what's going on between you and Marinette?"

"Nothing," Adrien says as he jams a book into his bag with a little more force than necessary, prompting a yelp from Plagg. "Nothing is going on," he says louder to drown out his whining kwami.

"That didn't look like nothing," Nino retorts.

"Well it was, so drop it," Adrien says as he rises. He places his bag in front of his groin and everything clicks into place.

"DUDE!" Nino shouts with a laugh. "You're totally into Marinette!"

"I…it's…you know what…" Adrien splutters.

"Okay, see, I thought something had changed between you two after the whole locked in the utility closet debacle, but I wasn't sure!" Nino crows. "Good choice, by the way. Marinette's perfect for you!" His demeanor changes in an instant, from laughing to quiet rage. "But if you hurt her, so help me Bro, I will end you."

Adrien gulps nervously because he doesn't doubt it. Nino is one of Marinette's oldest friends. Of course he's going to be protective of her. "Noted," he manages to say.

Nino glances at his friend and then chuckles. "Seriously man, this is pretty funny."

"Only for you."

"It does seem that she's been trying to get under your skin," Nino continues. "And judging from the position of your book bag, I'm going to say it's been working."

"New subject please."

"You've got it so bad for her."

"Seriously, Nino, shut up."

His friend shuts his mouth but he's obviously smirking. Adrien curses his friend, and hopes that he gets stuck with awkward and uncontrollable erections at the least convenient of times.

By some miracle Adrien manages to get through the rest of the day unscathed. Well, except for that incident during comparative literature when Marinette dropped her tablet stylus and did that bend and snap move right next to him when she picked it up. Nino nearly turns purple from trying to contain his laughter and Adrien groans and scoots his chair further under his desk to hide the damage.

The end of the day comes after what feels like an eternity, and after sneaking a kiss to Marinette, Adrien is on his way to a photo shoot for his father's mid-summer line. That should safe, though Adrien also knows that Marinette knows his schedule as well as he does. It is not entirely outside the realm of possibility that she'll show up and make his life hell.

It's halfway through the shoot when movement out of the corner of his eye snags his attention. She's standing there, watching the shoot along with several other bystanders. It isn't odd for one of his photoshoots to amass an audience. Fashion shoots aren't a rare sight in Paris, but people turn out just the same, usually to scope the latest trends. Marinette is no different, popping up at photoshoots when they were nothing more than classmates, often jotting notes on a memo pad she kept in her purse about the current trends and how she can use them in her own designs.

But something has Adrien's radar on high alert, and he knows his girlfriend isn't there to scope the latest trends. She is there to mess with him. The thing is, he doesn't know how.

They take a break while the photographer downloads the images on the camera's memory card, and Adrien takes a moment to head into the prep tent where he's been changing and sits in his hair and make-up chair to center himself. It simply won't do to let Marinette get under his skin while he's working. He's a professional, damn it, and he's going to act like one.

"The pictures are turning out nicely," a smooth voice says behind him.

Ah yes, the ultimate mood killer. His father.

"I'm glad," Adrien answers. "The new designs seem to be getting a lot of positive response from the crowd outside."

"Always a plus," Gabriel says thoughtfully as he thumbs through the images on his tablet.

Per usual, Gabriel is more wrapped up in his fashion empire than his son, so Adrien allows the hair and make-up team to freshen him up, he makes the necessary wardrobe change, then heads back out to finish the shoot. Marinette is still standing in the fringes of the crowd, and he smiles and waves at her as he walks past. She winks at him back, and God help him, the next thirty photos have the same love struck smile.

For once it seems as though he has Ladybug's good luck instead of Chat Noir's bad luck. Aside from looking rather fetching in that ladybug print sundress, Marinette is behaving herself. She smiles and waves to him, beaming with pride, but she's not doing anything out of the ordinary. Half of the girls in the crowd are also smiling and waving at him.

When his father emerges from the tent twenty minutes later, Adrien in the zone. He finds that he doesn't have to fake his smiles so much when Marinette's in the crowd, and apparently that's working for the photographer and his father. These are easily the best pictures Adrien's ever taken and right as he starts getting cocky, everything comes crashing down around him.

He looks out to the crowd for Marinette, hoping for one of her smiles to bolster his own, and finds that she's bought a popsicle from a street vendor. And what she's doing to that popsicle should be illegal. Actually, scratch that, he's pretty sure it's illegal _somewhere_.

A strangled groan escapes his throat and he tries to wrench his gaze away from her but he can't. It's like a train wreck or a car accident or something _horrible_ but he cannot, for the life of him, look away. The way that Marinette is sucking down that popsicle is absolutely sinful and he can't help the thoughts that go skittering through his mind, overruling any previous rational thought.

Thankfully the photographer has what he wants and tells them that they're done, so Adrien runs back to the tent and collapses to the ground once he's in there. He probably shouldn't be on his hands and knees in the clothes, but dear God he can't help it. He's an eighteen year old boy, his girlfriend is beautiful and smart and funny, and heaven help him has a puckish streak a kilometer wide.

"Adrien."

He winces at the tone of his father's voice. To say it sounds displeased is the understatement of the century. Gabriel Agreste demands perfection, and the last few minutes of that shoot were anything but.

"I understand that you're a young man and an interest in girls is understandable, but if they're too much of a distraction, we're going to have a problem."

"It's not a problem, Dad," Adrien says, even if the situation in his pants indicates otherwise.

Gabriel sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "There seem to be evidence that contradicts that."

"It won't happen again," Adrien swears. Because it won't. He'll get Nino and Alya to help keep Marinette away from all future photo shoots if he has to.

"You are by all accounts a healthy young man, you cannot guarantee that."

Which would be true, if it weren't for the fact that Adrien only has eyes for Marinette. Marinette is the only person who can get that kind of reaction from him. He just wishes that his father would believe him. "Just…trust me, Dad."

One perfect ash blond eyebrow arches. "There's a specific girl, then?"

Ugh. Not something he wants to own up to, because that means all kinds of uncomfortable questions and Adrien is already feeling uncomfortable enough, thank you. But a non-answer won't make his father happy, and Adrien sighs. "A girl, from my class at school."

Gabriel hums. "Are you serious about this girl?"

Serious about Marinette? The girl who has saved his ass more times than he can count over the last three years? The girl who sees not only Adrien the Model, the perfect boy his father wants him to be, but who also sees his playful and flirty side and accepts the bad puns even if they tend to earn more eye rolls than laughs? Yeah, he's serious about her.

"Yes."

To his credit, Gabriel doesn't fly off the handle. Indeed he's rather calm about the whole situation which isn't usual but still unsettles Adrien. "I'll need to know about her. Her name, the occupation of her parents-"

Adrien groans quietly as his father rattles off the particulars he now needs to know. To be perfectly blunt Adrien doesn't care about any of that. What he does care about is that Marinette sees the real him, not what kind of connection his father can get her family. At any rate, the only good thing about this whole situation is that it's pretty much killed whatever feelings Marinette had riled up in him.

For now.

"Do I make myself clear, Adrien?" his father says.

Adrien suppresses a sigh. "Yes, Dad."

"Good," Gabriel says. "We're done here."

As the designer sweeps out of the tent, Adrien lets out a strangled groan. "Thank God," he mutters. He takes his time to change back into his street clothes and by the time he leaves the tent most of the looky-loos have departed. Only Marinette remains.

He stalks over to her and tries to look angry. However Adrien assumes that at worst he looks like an angry kitten and not an angry man, because Marinette's grin widens when she sees his face. "I got a lecture from my dad," he blurts. "I've already suffered through The Talk once, I don't want to suffer through it again!"

Marinette giggles. "Sorry."

Adrien glares at her. "No, you're not."

She starts laughing in earnest now. "You're right, I'm not. But I promise not to do it when you're working ever again. Does that work for you?"

He crosses his arms and lets out an irritated huff. "I suppose."

Rocking up on the balls of her feet, she presses a chaste kiss to his cheek. "C'mon. Let's go see if there are any macarons left at the bakery."

"You're bribing me," he accuses as he loops his arm around her shoulders.

She tries her best to look innocent. "Me? Never!"

"You know, I will find a way to pay you back in kind for all of the attention you've been giving me," he says seriously as they cross the park.

A fetching blush stains her cheeks. "Is that a promise?" she asks breathlessly.

He gives her a devilish grin. "You can bet you'll get what's coming to you."

"Thank God," she murmurs and Adrien chuckles.


End file.
